Manned mission to mars

This is part of IEEE Spectrum’s Special Report: Why Mars? Why Now? Many people believe that a manned mission to Mars is a venture best left to the next generation. They’re wrong. We have in hand all the required technologies; we don’t need to build giant spaceships, a lunar base, or a space station grander than the one we have. Instead, we can go straight to Mars in relatively small spacecraft powered by boosters like those that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon 40 years ago. With this “Mars Direct” approach, traveling light and living off the land whenever possible, humans could reach the Red Planet within a decade. Here’s how it might work. In the spring of 2014, a heavy-lift booster similar to Apollo’s Saturn V launches from Cape Canaveral and uses its upper stage to throw an unmanned payload weighing 40 metric tons onto a trajectory to Mars. The payload includes an Earth return vehicle (ERV) that will eventually bring a human crew home; … [Read more...] about How to Go to Mars—Right Now!

The space race may have begun with two major participants in the form of the United States and the Soviet Union (since reduced to Russia), but now, decades later, there are many more contenders for the title of top dog in the extraterrestrial regions. According to a new report from CNN, Japan is looking to put a man on the moon by 2030, perhaps putting the nation in direct competition with its nearby Asian neighbor, China.The plans for lunar travel were revealed by a new and ambitious proposal by the government’s Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The proposal was submitted by a panel at Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, CNN reported, which oversees the goals and missions of Japan’s space exploration program.However, Japan isn’t necessarily looking to take all the glory for itself. Rather, according to a JAXA spokesperson, the hope is for a multinational manned lunar probe to reach the moon sometime in the next … [Read more...] about Japan reveals its plans to send a manned mission to the moon

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says travel to Mars is within reach, and even plans to have one million people living on Mars within the next century. SpaceX isn’t the only space corporation working toward reaching Mars, however. In fact, there are quite a number of missions — both manned and unmanned — currently planned or under proposal from government space organizations and private space flight companies across the globe.Exploration of Mars and eventual human travel to it are not new concepts. While manned missions have remained financial and logistical near-impossibilities, unmanned missions began in 1960. There have been 55 Mars missions so far, though of those only 26 were successful (that makes 29 failures to some degree). Across the Martian surface, no less than 13 human-made robots and probes currently reside, with two rovers currently operational, while in the skies, 13 more human-made objects orbit Mars, of which five satellites are operating. That … [Read more...] about We’re going to the red planet! All 19 past, present, and future missions to Mars

China has successfully launched its Long March-2F rocket, marking the start of what will become its longest manned mission yet.The rocket left the launchpad in northern China on Monday morning local time, taking two astronauts on a two-day journey aboard the Shenzhou-11 module to China’s Tiangong-2 space station, which went into operation last month. The pair will stay on board the station for the next 30 days.The voyage, which is China’s first crewed mission in three years and only its sixth in total, will break the record for the longest amount of time any of its astronauts have spent in space.China is spending huge amounts on its rapidly expanding space program, with this latest mission a major step toward the deployment of a much larger space station set to begin operation some time in the 2020s. It also has plans to become the first country to land a probe on the dark side of the moon, and aims to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2020, an ambition shared … [Read more...] about A Chinese rocket has just blasted off to begin the nation’s longest manned mission to date

Putting space travelers into a state of deep sleep has been a staple of interstellar science fiction for quite some time, but despite originating as a far-fetched concept, the idea of using suspended animation to enable deep space travel might soon become science fact.If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, here’s a quick rundown. Traveling far into space is a tricky endeavor. With existing technology, traveling to a planet like Mars takes about 180 days, for example. Keeping a crew of people alive (and entertained) in space for that long isn’t hard, but it does require a lot of food, water, energy, and other supplies. This makes manned long-distance space travel extremely expensive, since hauling more supplies requires huge amounts of storage space, and thousands of additional dollars just to get it all that stuff into orbit.In theory, suspended animation would help solve this problem. If astronauts could be placed in a deep sleep during the journey, they … [Read more...] about NASA is funding research on deep sleep for transporting astronauts to Mars

Millionaire and former space tourist Dennis Tito on Wednesday revealed details of his ambitious plan to send a manned spacecraft to Mars in January, 2018.Tito told a media gathering in Washington that the 501-day mission, dubbed Inspiration Mars, a mission for America, is likely to involve a two-person crew comprising a man and a woman. He said that ideally the pair would be a married, middle-aged couple, adding that the space travelers could be selected within the next year.There had been some speculation as to whether Tito himself would take part in the Red Planet mission, but he ruled himself out. He will, after all, be 77 in 2018 so his decision to oversee the mission from terra firma won’t come as a surprise to too many observers.“I will not be one of the crew members,” Tito confirmed on Wednesday. “And if I were 30 years younger, I still would not be.” Twelve years ago, the former rocket engineer became the first paying passenger to visit the … [Read more...] about Mission to Mars: Space tourist Dennis Tito intends to send married couple to the Red Planet (and bring them back again)

While most of us were lazing around playing video games or catching up on chores over the weekend, NASA spent its Sunday announcing a new agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement will see both nations collaborate on a range of space project and aeronautical researching — including the possibility of a cooperative mission to Mars.“NASA is leading an ambitious journey to Mars that includes partnerships with the private sector and many international partners,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “I am confident this new framework agreement with the UAE Space Agency will help advance this journey.”The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has been open about its plans to land an unmanned probe on Mars by the year 2021, which just so happens to mark the nation’s fiftieth anniversary. NASA, for its part, wants to land American astronauts on Mars sometime in the 2030s. Together it’s a match made in… well, the heavens.“The reason … [Read more...] about NASA is teaming up with United Arab Emirates to gather data for a manned mission to Mars

Despite the tough challenges currently facing his SpaceX company, Elon Musk has made clear that he’s as determined as ever to get humans on Mars in the next 10 years.“I’m certain that success is one of the possible outcomes for establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, a growing Mars colony,” the SpaceX chief said in a recent interview with Y Combinator, adding that up until just a few years ago he wouldn’t have been able to make the same claim.Musk said that getting “a meaningful number of people” to Mars “can be accomplished in about 10 years, maybe sooner, maybe nine years.”He first mooted the idea of a manned mission to Mars by 2026 at an event at the start of the year.“Do we want a future where we are forever confined to one planet until some eventual extinction event, however far in the future that might occur?” Musk said at the tech gathering in Hong Kong. “Or do we want to become a multi-fantasy species … [Read more...] about SpaceX still on course for a manned mission to Mars ‘in 10 years, maybe sooner’

President Obama on Monday proposed a dramatically new path that would end NASA's Constellation moon program and shift the agency's focus to developing new technologies for deeper space exploration instead."The truth is that we were not on a path to get back to the moon's surface" in a reasonable time frame, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden explained while presenting the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. "As we focused so much of our effort and funding on just getting to the moon, we were neglecting investments in the key technologies that would be required to go beyond."The president's new budget request provides US$3 billion over five years for "robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids," Bolden explained. "These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably."Also included in the proposed $3.8 … [Read more...] about Obama Gazes Past the Moon to Mars

Data Analysis Russia Hopes Nuclear Ship will Fly Humans to Mars Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said on October 29, 2009. Anatoly Perminov first proposed building the ship at a government meeting on October 28, but didn't explain its purpose. President Dmitry Medvedev backed the project and urged the government to find the money.In remarks posted on his agency's Web site, Perminov said the nuclear spaceship should be used for human flights to Mars and other planets. He said the project is challenging technologically, but could capitalize on the Soviet and Russian experience in the field. Perminov said the preliminary design could be ready by 2012, and then it would take nine more years and cost 17 billion rubles to build the ship."The project is aimed at implementing large-scale space exploration programs, including a manned mission to Mars, interplanetary travel, the … [Read more...] about Russia Hopes Nuclear Ship will Fly Humans to Mars